Sony Xperia™ Z1 and Xperia™ Z Ultra get ANT+ Capable certification

We’re pleased to inform that Sony Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z Ultra have joined the 17 phones in our portfolio that already support the ANT+ wireless technology. With their GPS/ GLONASS capabilities, along with water and dust resistance, it’s only fitting that the Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z Ultra support the leading wireless transfer protocol for health, fitness and sport use cases. Find out how you can develop a mobile app with ANT+ support, right after the jump!

With an ecosystem of over 60 million connected devices, ANT+ has become a staple in the industries where the collection, automatic transfer, and tracking of sensor data are necessary. ANT+ is an ultra-low power (ULP) wireless protocol, meaning it consumes very little power while sending information wirelessly from one device to another. It’s also robust and flexible, and can be either built-in or connected as a USB dongle to any Android device.

There is a large number of different ANT+ enabled sensors and devices available in the market today. Sony Mobile was the first to integrate ANT+ into mobile handsets, and also the first ANT+ product manufacturer to ship devices using ANT’s common Android system software. For a complete and up-to-date list of Sony phones that currently support ANT+, please refer to the Compatible Devices section on the ANT+ homepage.

Device profiles make development easyThe Sony Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z Ultra are the latest devices in our portfolio that are certified as ANT+ Capable, and include the new ANT common Android system software*, which allows multiple applications, profiles and wireless accessories to be used in parallel and independent of each other. With the ANT common Android system software comes complete and readily available device profiles with documented APIs available as plugins on Google Play. This means that the effort to add support for ANT+ wireless sensors in an application is straight forward and does not require any specific ANT+ knowledge.

By implementing a particular device profile, for example, you can use Sony Xperia Z1 with a heart rate monitor, a pedometer, or both, when you are out running. In addition, the heart rate monitor can be interchanged for any other ANT+ heart rate monitor, from any manufacturer, which means an ecosystem of interoperable devices can be easily formed.

Get started with ANT+ in your appIf you’d like to use ANT+ in your app, and take part in the creation and expansion of the ANT+ ecosystem, a great place for you to begin is the Starting Your Project page on the ANT+ official website, where you can download theAndroid ANT+ SDK along with libraries, sample applications, and relevant documentation. You can find a simulator and various tools in the ANT+ Adopter’s Zone, which is useful for when you’re working with differentANT+ device profiles. The ANT+ forums are great for getting feedback from the community and submitting bug reports.

The flexibility of the ANT+ wireless protocol opens up many new possibilities for phone connectivity with different devices, and we hope that all you aspiring ANT+ developers are excited to see what the future holds for this technology as much as we are here at Sony. If you’ve got any questions on the topic, feel free to drop us a comment and we will try come back with an answer as soon as possible.

* The introduction of the new ANT common Android system software has caused a temporary drop in support on Sony Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z Ultra for legacy applications that use the old system drivers. This will be re-added in future phone software updates. However, many existing applications are expected to transition to the new software shortly.

More information

• Check out the ANT website.
• Find the ANT device profiles.
• Get the ANT+ Android SDK and the ANT+ Android application API .
• Check out the official ANT+ profile documentation.
• Ask questions and interact with other developers in the ANT forums.